A Simple Tip On Teaching Puppy Training Commands

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Today’s puppy training tip is a very simple concept however, I pretty much guarantee you that we all make this mistake on occasion.

If you’ve ever attended a puppy kindergarten, puppy obedience, or dog obedience training class then I’m sure you’ve heard most of the handlers working on basic puppy training commands like sit, down, stay, come, etc.  So if you have witnessed one of these obedience classes then you may have heard or seen a scenario like this:

Dog Trainer: “Now tell your dog to SIT.”

Puppy Handler: “Fido sit…sit…sit…sit….sit…sit….good boy!”

So, what just happened there?  Well, our hero, “Puppy Handler” kept telling his puppy, Fido to “sit”.  In fact, he told Fido to “sit” a grand total of 6 times before Fido finally followed the command and put his butt to the pavement.  Now you might be asking what’s wrong with that?  And that brings us to today’s puppy training tip:

Teaching Puppy Training Commands

When teaching puppy training command do the following:

1. Tell your puppy the command 1 time.  For example “Sit”
2. Give your puppy a moment to process the command, “sit”.
3. If after waiting your puppy does not move into the “sit” position then move him into the “position” (with our puppy’s I usually lure them into position with a treat when they are young pups).

The key here is you are only to tell your puppy a command 1 time.  If he doesn’t follow that command then you DO NOT repeat the command.  If you do, then your puppy is learning that when you say “sit…sit…sit…sit…sit…sit” that means the command “sit” and he will learn to only follow the command after you’ve said it 6 times.

So in a nutshell.  Today’s lesson is:

“WHEN TEACHING PUPPY TRAINING COMMANDS ONLY SAY A COMMAND ONCE.”

If you stick to this simple rule you’ll notice your puppy will start learning his commands much quicker.  As I’ve mentioned in the past…Be Consistent!  Say the command once then make sure your puppy follows through on the proper action.

That’s it!  Very simple indeed, but I bet you a million dollars that when you’re working on your training you will say a puppy training command multiple times.  Trust me.  I’ve been working with my puppies and I’ve known this rule for over 7 years and yet I still catch myself saying commands more than once.  The dog trainers from our guide dog group chastise me every time because they know that I know this simple rule.  I’m getting better 🙂

Now that you’ve read this simple puppy training tip, go home, work on your puppy or dog obedience command, then come back to the blog and tell me how many times you said your commands.

Do you have any simple tips on teaching puppy training commands?  Tell us about them in the comment section below!

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